The present invention relates to electroluminescent semiconductor devices and more particularly to an electroluminescent semiconductor device having a restricted current flow.
Electroluminescent semiconductor devices, in general, are bodies of a single crystalline semiconductor material which, when biased with a current, emits light, either visible or not visible, through the recombination of pairs of oppositely charged carriers. Typically, electroluminescent semiconductor devices are devices such as light emitting diodes and lasers. Such devices generally include regions of opposite conductivity types forming a P-N junction therebetween. When the junction is properly biased, charge carriers of one type are injected from one of the regions into the other where the predominant charge carriers are of the opposite conductivity type so as to achieve the light generating recombination.
To improve the operating characteristic of the electroluminescent semiconductor device it has been found desirable to both limit the width of the device's recombination region, i.e. the dimension of the recombination region between the side surfaces of the body, and to limit the flow of current, through the body, to only the recombination region. Various structures of electroluminescent semiconductor devices have been designed to achieve the restriction of current flow, but such devices have had the disadvantage that they were difficult to fabricate. It would be most desirable to have an electroluminescent semiconductor device with restricted current flow which would be easy to fabricate.